


Terra Firma

by karrenia_rune



Category: The Second Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor
Genre: Gen, Mythical Beings & Creatures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-28
Updated: 2018-03-28
Packaged: 2019-04-14 06:45:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14130396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrenia_rune/pseuds/karrenia_rune
Summary: A Field Guide to Rocs in the Wild





	Terra Firma

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Morbane](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morbane/gifts).



Once there was a land that time forget, or to put it more accurately, since human beings are that use instruments to measure the passing of time; it simply existed outside the boundaries of time. In this place where up unitl the period where the humans of the world began to look the land and sea boundaries of their own contients and thus began the Age of Sail and exploration.

This place was a large island just to the southeast of the Dark Contient; as Africa was once known as, to the majority of the mainlaind population of Europe. 

On this island one could find all manner of flora and fauna, such as the ring-tailed lemurs and apes and other such things, but for our purposes, there was also birds that grew to be the size of areoplanes; but at this time areoplanes had not yet been invented.

They were gentle giants, living in symbiotic harmony with the world in which they found themselves. However, these birds also had to eat, and they hunted other large game for food, mainly elephantine snakes and a large, ungainly type of long-legged bird whose cousin would later be found on the island of Australia. 

The Rocs were terriotiral; preferring high vantage points, hillsides and coastal reefs, wherever these could be found, especially if cave ran through them, building their eeyries and their rookeries and mating and courting and hatching their young.

Both male and female Rocs participated in the raising of their offspring, including foraging and hunting for food, guarding the nest, although they tended to leave the unhatched egg a good distance from the site of the nest.

It is unclear whether or not this was intentional or not, since the only reported observation of this type of Roc behavior came from the tales of Sinbad the Sailor.

The natives of the valley in which the Rocs native to Madagascar reported that perhaps it was seen as a type of rite of passage to see if the young baby roc would live to grow up big and strong like its parents. or perhaps the mother roc accidentally left it there and forget to come back for it later? 

I believe, that the former is the more likely scenario. I have not been fortunate to have actually seen a baby Roc, but for those who have, they start out with their eyes closed, much like other avians, and with down black feathers and the feathers on their hand gradually darkens to a blue-black as they get older. 

Eventually, the rocs being quite sociable among their own kind and already long established a kind of mysterious way of interacting with their native land, began to raise their estimation of these strange two-legged animals from 'not food' to curiosities, and the two-legged animals, (Humans) upgraded their estimations of Rocs from mythological creatures, to fearsome predators; some among the first humans even began to sense a kinship that over time became a grudging respect.

It would take many years before the people saw the Rocs as good luck charms, protectors and even friends. One testimony from the reclusive dwellers of the Valley of Diamonds maintains that Rocs are their protectors, what they these giant birds are protecting the locals from is unclear until one delves a little deeper into the varying accounts of the generations who have been born, lived, and died here.

According to one account there and the name of the man whose account I relate was called Akim and he claimed to have heard the story from his great, great, great once removed grandmother who was a storyteller. 

Be that as it may, I did not hold that against him, for among the legends and stories passed down from generation to generation, even when it was still such an oral tradition, before such things were written down; it said; there is always more than a kernel of truth to them. But, I digress....

He said that his people were not the only ones to have discovered this secret Valley and its treasure trove of diamonds.

The diamonds were more than just shiny refined pretty rocks, they used them in ceremonies and grounded up and mixed for medicines.

It so happened that one day, so his grandmother related:, the dragons discovered the valley. Where the dragons came from, Akim could not say, for he did not know, just they came. Dragons by nature drawn to gold and jewels, and territorial, the dragons coveted the diamonds to take and jealously guard in their treasure hoards.

When asked if the Rocs cared all that much for treasure, Akim only shook his head and again repeated that he did not know whether they did or not. Then he cocked his head to one side and thought the matter over for a heartbeat before replying, "I think they're a lot smarter than we give them credit for, and I think they know that the diamonds are important to us so they're important to them; if that makes any sense?" 

I nodded and encouraged him to go on. "Dragons would love that sort of treasure. Are there dragon vs roc battles?"

For the first time I met him Akim showed signs of discomfort, probably disgruntlement at the impatience of foreign naturalists, I have no doubt. I squirmed on the woven colorful floor mat that I sat on, and nodded for him to please continue.

More or less mollified that the were to be no further interruptions, he did so.

"The first dragon was alone, either by his own doing, perhaps driven out from a larger tribe. Like most dragons he had the magical ability to communicate with other animals including humans and he was initially looking for new hunting grounds, or a possibly a mate; and just stumbled onto our valley by accident."

"Once he found the mine however, he ensconced himself there and took a rich vein of diamonds as his new hoard. The village elders tried everything to get rid of him, lures, rituals, hunts, cave-ins, everything that they could think of; nothing worked."

"What happened?

It is said that a boy and a girl from our village hatched upon a plan, a daring plan, a foolhardy plan, others said. They decided to beseech the aid of our guardian Rocs, and being both young and strong and determined, they scaled the cliffs to where the Rocs had their nests and with the aid of our elders made them understand what was happening to us. and agree to come to our aid."

Then, the Rocs allowed them to climb onto their backs with and use improvised saddles to ride on, and come down and do fight the dragon and drive him from our land."

"The dragon emerged from the cave, with a great roar, trying to match in sheer volume of its roar the predatory and fierce cry of the Roc. I think the Roc's clarion call of the Roc's was much more proud and threatening than the Dragon, but that's just me."

The boy and the girl wanted to remain on the Roc's back, but the saddle was haphazard and precarious and they fell off. The Roc and the Dragon circled one another six or seven times around each attempting to get the measure of one another; falling to to rend and tear with talons and teeth and claws."

The ground heaved with the impact of such huge bodies, and believe dragons are big, but I think perhaps the Rocs of legend were much bigger back then they are now."

The dragon put up a good fight, but he was out-numbered after a heart-breaking time he backed down as if the fight had gone out of him. 

"Did the dragon ever come back?" 

"Not that I ever heard of," Akim replied with a shrug, dipping his head and began to idly to turn over the length of colorful thread that he held in his hands. His mother, a sternly beautiful older woman whose raven-black hair had streaks of silver highlights in them, watched from the doorway of their house. 

"What happened to the Rocs? Did they survive the fight?"

"I think so, but the Rocs were spooked, they way I heard, and they tend to seasonlly migrate and they have such huge wingspans that they travel great distances, so whole tribes could have up and moved on without much warning."

"Akim!" his mother called, "It's getting late, come here with the rest of that wool and we can work on your weaving in the morning. Nodding to me, "You come, too, there's a guest room in the back already made up."

***  
However, this was not to last, for time is much akin to a great river and it constantly flows. Many years would pass, and there were changes in ecosystem, changes in the outside world and the outside world would intrude on this land outside of time.

The Rocs were accustomed to flying great distances, seasonally migrating from place to place, 

 

Flying over the oceans and land with the wind at their backs the Rocs covered great distances, instinct drove them on, and on, they had passed many places where they could have settled down, some even resembled the island they once called home. Lush tropical jungles, white sand beaches, and high-cliffs, but for whatever reason, they passed on these, and continued their journey.

Rising and cresting the thermals they sighted an island that looked promising. It was an island called Bali.

Unbeknowest to them, another species of giant bird, according to Buddhist tradition, garudas are not one single being, but more like a mythical species.

Originally very birdlike, in Hindu art Garuda evolved to look more human over the centuries. Just so, garudas in Nepal are often depicted as humans with wings. However, in most of the rest of Asia, garudas maintain their bird's heads, beaks, and talons. Indonesian garudas are especially colorful and are depicted with big teeth or tusks. Garudas also are a popular subject of tattoo art.

Once natives of the border mountains that served as the hotly contested boundary between the modern day country of India and Pakistan was found a colony of Rocs who had settled into territory that had already been claimed by another legendary species of giant bird; namely the Garudas.

Their wingspan is said to be many miles wide; when they flap their wings they cause hurricane-force winds. The garudas waged a long-standing war with the nagas, which in most of Buddhism are much nicer than they are in the Mahabharata.

The Rocs were met by these bird-like humans and were nearly driven out of the skies by the hurricane force of their flapping wings. Since garudas were magical and had the capability of speech, this misunderstanding was quickly patched up.

The Rocs had found a new home, and the Garudas had found a new ally in their centuries-old war with another mythological species, the Nagas. 

In fact the ascetic Karambiya having studied many things in many different disciplines, suggesting that the Rocs ability to lift heavy things in their sharp talons and beaks, could be of assistance to the garudas in their hunt of the nagas: an intelligent and serpent-like beings whom they hunt and at one time caught by seizing by their heads. 

However, the nagas learned and adapted, too and learned that they could make themselves too heavy for the garudas to lift and carry away by swallowing large stones wearing them out and killing them. But that is a story for another time.

According to an chronicler by the name of According to Rudolph Wittkower, the idea of the roc had its origins in the story of the fight between the Indian solar bird Garuda[3] and the chthonic serpent Nāga. The story of Garuda carrying off an elephant that was battling a crocodile appears in two Sanskrit epics, the Mahabharata (I.1353) and the Ramayana (III.39).

As time went on the humans, the native and adopted protectors found a way to coexist. The Rocs had found a new home and all was well.

***  
part the Third: Conclusion

In addition to Polo's account of the rukh, which is the Eygptian spelling, in 1298, Chou Ch'ű-fei (周去非, Zhōu Qùfēi), in his 1178 book Lingwai Daida, told of a large island off Africa with birds large enough to use their quills as water reservoirs. Fronds of the raffia palm may have been brought to Kublai Khan under the guise of roc's feathers

Some recent scholars have compared the legendary roc with the Haast's eagle, of New Zealand. 1.4 m (4 ft. 7 in) long with a 3 m (9.8 ft.) wingspan, it became extinct around the 15th century, but probably inspired the Māori legend of Te Hokioi or Te Hakawai. 

Be that as it may, the myth and the reality of the existence of the Rocs lives on and whether or not they were ever real, which I believe they were, the Roc continues to capture the imagination of young and old, scholars and layman alike.


End file.
